Dictionary Poem by Apuna Rato

I remember one summer morning
Me sitting in front of a big book,
A gift from a cousin brother,
Smiling and curious to unwrapped.
"This is a dictionary: a book that gives
A list of words in alphabetical order
And explains their meaning", he said.
It answered all my doubts in silence,
Taught the principles of alphabetical order,
Of the use of words at the head of page
And unveiled the world of information;
Of meaning, usage, grammatical twist and
Of the mysterious symbols of phonetics.
Fondly, I studied the words and pictures
Some joked, it's not meant to be memorized.
Though fading, it never left my sight
Even in my struggling college days.
There wasn't any verse without it
And still, it keeps sweetening my lyrics.